Reviewer: Rowena Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song by Sara Bareilles
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: October 6, 2015
Format: eARC
Genres: Nonfiction
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A candid and down-to-earth collection of essays by five-time, Grammy Award nominated singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, exploring her life in song; raw, evocative, and utterly unforgettable.
Sara Bareilles shot to fame in 2007 with her hit single; Love Song, and her more recent chart-topping hit; Brave, but her journal as a songwriter started long before. In this candid book of essays, Sara pulls back the curtain to expose her songwriting process, revealing all the struggle and joy inherent in creating great work while staying true to yourself.
Showcasing her stripped down and confessional writing style, Sara's entertaining and inspirational book tells the inside stories behind her most popular songs and offers insights into finding balance between making art for herself and commercial music for her listeners.
Rowena’s review of Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Music by Sara Bareilles.
I’m not one to read celebrity biographies or autobiographies or anything like that so when this book came across my radar, I was surprised at how much I wanted to read it. I’ve been a fan of Sara Bareilles for a while now and I’m a fan of her music and a fan of her. She comes across as this bubbly, friendly person and getting this book meant getting to know her a little better and I was all about that. I was also excited to get the background on some of my favorite songs of hers, like Gravity, Brave and Love Song. I’ve heard some of the stories but I’ve also heard her say the stories were exaggerated so I was pretty stoked to get the real story from the source.
This book consists of 8 essays that Bareilles wrote about what her life has been like growing up, in music. Each essay centers around one of her songs and she shares the tid bits from her life that influenced the songs she wrote and the person she grew up to be.
Reading this book was exactly how I pictured having a conversation with Bareilles would be like. Her personality shines through with each page and while I enjoyed getting little insights into the stories that shaped her life, I’m afraid that I’m more of a fiction lover. I kept waiting for plot twists that never came and wading through each essay was slow at times but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy the book because I did. There were parts that were more interesting to me than others but overall, I’m glad that I read this book. I liked getting this small snippet of Sara Bareilles and I like knowing the inside scoop to some of my favorite songs.
I think fans of Bareilles will enjoy this one. It’s a solid group of essays. Good job, Sara Bareilles!
Grade: 3 out of 5
This book is available from Simon & Schuster. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.